This is a story of dreamers who start from scratch with hope of living a better life. Darya has learned from her immigrant mother that once we are finally able to truly envision our dreams, they start to gain power. When an older Darya decides to say goodbye to everything she has accomplished in her past and restart her life, she realizes that to achieve her dreams, she needs to help others reach their dreams too. The more she helps others, the lighter she feels - and the lighter she feels, the higher she goes. The question then becomes, who is helping who? This is an unforgettable book that explores the cyclical life journey that is common to anyone who has, willingly or unwillingly, decided to restart their life, take a risk, and experience the unknown. "Big Dreams, Small Suitcase" is an unforgettable story that shares how life journeys are either linear or circular. The linear ones start from a point and gradually move straight forward, until they reach the end. The circular ones start from a point as well, but they move within a roundabout instead, eventually reaching their starting point once more and restarting their journey again.

The land of opportunity, a golden Eden, the last frontier. What is this place that has given rise to countless metaphors but can still quicken the imagination? For Bill Barich, the question became a quest when he realized that home was no longer New York, where he had grown up, but California, to which he had been lured twenty years earlier. Now, in this account of his journey through California, he captures the true nature of the state behind the stereotypes. From the fogbound fishing towns of the North to the Mexican port of entry at San Ysidro, Barich describes an amazing diversity among people who have staked a claim to California’s promise. He introduces us to a Native American hairdresser and the head priest of a Sikh temple; we meet loggers, bikers, an aging lifeguard, and the prison warden whose job is to keep Charles Manson behind bars. He follows the traces of John Muir, Robert Louis Stevenson, Walt Disney, and Ronald Reagan, and weighs the impact their dreams have had on the rest of us. The result is a book that captures all the promise, heartache, grandeur, and incongruity of California and its unabashed Big Dreams.

Roving the lonesome highways in search of fresh baseball talent in 1942, New York Yankees scout Mac "Suitcase" Sefton discovers a once-in-a-lifetime talent in Jerry Yamada. The young left-handed pitcher seems poised to take his place among the pantheon of major league pitching greats. However, he's being held indefinitely in a Japanese American internment camp, and he's not even certain that he wants to play professional baseball. Caught behind barbed wire in a camp in Arizona, Jerry, his lovely sister, Annie, and their old-world parents make the best of their confinement while Sefton schemes to find a way to free Yamada and convince him to play for the Yanks. Sefton's interest in Yamada and his family changes from professional to personal when he accepts an offer to join the Yamadas for tea in their primitive quarters in a converted army barrack. Sefton's respect for their strength and the values they hold dear develops and deepens as he begins to see how his own lifestyle contrasts with the Yamadas’. A profound change takes place in him as he discusses freedom and the future with Annie. As a result, the relationships between the scout and the Japanese American family strain and strengthen as they share their cultures and lives. Amid baseball, racism, and hope, Sefton and the Yamadas rediscover the American dream.

In 1948 Joseph Kinnebrew was a little boy becoming aware of his place in a bigger world. Back then his territory was small, he was maturing from age six to eight. Living with his family on a steep hill running down to Commencement Bay in Tacoma, Washington, Joseph, in those days just Joe, with his dog Skipper, and neighborhood pal Freddie with his dog Chipper were serious adventurers. Young boys, “persons of curiosity”. In this entertaining chronicling Kinnebrew shares two summers of idyllic childhood, sometimes serious, sometimes hilariously comedic experiences of little boys growing up, still attached to their mothers who fed, healed and comforted them. Valuable lessons they would carry forward into the remainder of their lives. Joe’s life ahead with uncommon abilities would be exceptionally accomplished. He tells a story of charming innocence, emotions and evolving beliefs along with how he and Freddie struck gold on the steep hillside of a gully, shared secrets with Skipper and Chipper, and ditched Davy who told everyone his father owned the Wonder Bread company. Exploring the beaches of Puget Sound these boys played marbles inside their fort deep in dense blackberry brambles, safe from troublesome little girls and babysitters. They built many “forts” to spy on dreaded hobos who resided at the bottom in the gully near their homes. Parents had forbade them going to the gully where it was said the hobos kidnapped children and sold them into slavery sending them to Arabia. And then profound and lasting lessons for impressionable little boys from their encounters and friendship with Bobbie the older seriously handicapped young man who lived nearby. Kinnebrew provides magical and captivating glimpses into his childhood. Two years later, in 1950 his family moved to the Midwest, Joe forever leaving behind his best friend, Freddie, towering fir trees, salt water, mountains, and his compelling innocence. Little Boys, Big Dreams is an unforgettable touching recollection of precious unspoiled youth.

In one of the first books devoted to the experience of Sudanese immigrants and exiles in the United States, Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf places her community into context, showing its increasing historical and political significance. Abusharaf herself participates in many aspects of life in the migrant community and in the Sudan in ways that a non-Sudanese could not. Attending religious events, social gatherings, and meetings, Abusharaf discovers that a national sense of common Sudanese identity emerges more strongly among immigrants in North America than it does at home. Sudanese immigrants use informal transatlantic networks to ease the immigration process, and act on the local level to help others find housing and employment. They gather for political activism, to share feasts, and to celebrate marriages, always negotiating between tradition and the challenges of their new surroundings.Abusharaf uses a combination of conversations with Sudanese friends, interviews, and life histories to portray several groups among the Sudanese immigrant population: Southern war refugees, including the "Lost Boys of Sudan," spent years in camps in Kenya or Uganda; professionals were expelled from the Gulf because their country's rulers backed Iraq in the Gulf War; Christian Copts suffered from religious persecution in Sudan; and women migrated alone.

From the bestselling author of The Girl from Munich, a sweeping, dramatic tale of love and identity, inspired by a true story. After enduring the horror of Nazi Germany and the chaos of postwar occupation, Lotte Drescher and her family arrive in Australia in 1956 full of hope for a new life. It’s a land of opportunity, where Lotte and her husband Erich dream of giving their children the future they have always wanted. After years of struggling to find their feet as New Australians, Erich turns his skill as a wood carver into a successful business and Lotte makes a career out of her lifelong passion, photography. The sacrifices they have made finally seem worth it until Erich’s role in the trade union movement threatens to have him branded a communist and endanger their family. Then darker shadows of the past reach out to them from Germany, a world and a lifetime away. As the Vietnam War looms, an unexpected visitor forces Lotte to a turning point. Her decision will change her life forever . . . and will finally show her the true meaning of home. PRAISE FOR TANIA BLANCHARD ‘Captures the intensity of a brutal and unforgiving war, successfully weaving love, loss, desperation and, finally, hope into a gripping journey of self-discovery.’ Courier Mail ‘An epic tale, grand in scope … Packs an emotional punch that will reverberate far and wide.’ Weekly Times ‘A tumultuous journey from order to bedlam, and from naive acceptance of the status quo to the gradual getting of political wisdom.’ Sunday Age ‘An original and innovative take on the World War II genre that captures the hauntingly desperate essence of the war. Tania Blanchard has written yet another spectacular novel. Don’t miss this.’ Better Reading ‘A sweeping, dramatic tale of love and identity.’ Fraser Coast Chronicle